Case1 Freqon
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1. In order to assess what went wrong in the relationship between Freqon and NordAlu it is important to identify where the problems began. When Freqon moved some of its aluminum components to other suppliers, for the new frequency converter model, without communicating it to Nord-Alu, the trust was seriously damaged. But we argue that the problems began earlier. As discussed by Ford et al. (2006) it is important to study relationships from a time perspective. They argue that one can not asses a relationship in one given moment in time, but that one needs to study the relationship by taking all its history of interactions into consideration. In the first years, both companies were highly involved within joint efforts, taking advantage of each other’s resources and capacities. The relationship between the companies and its employees grew stronger which lead to a relaxed communication style and even friendly personal bonding. However, the coordination of the collaboration was also informal and built upon the personal relationships between the actors. Hence, the actor bonds were very strong but the activity links were not strongly developed. In the beginning of the relationship, there was a keen emphasis on the development of resource ties, focus was given to mutual exchange of resources and capabilities. But this focus faded gradually over time. No one seemed to take responsibility for managing the relationship nor showed interest in maintaining the high commitment level that was present initially. Maybe they became too comfortable to scan for new ways of exploiting each other’s resources and capabilities? Here we can observe the importance of being attentive, to perform continuous assessments of where the relationship is going, and to have an understanding of the evolvement of the relationship over time (Ford, Gadde, Håkansson, 2011). We argue that both
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1. In order to assess what went wrong in the relationship between Freqon and NordAlu it is important to identify where the problems began. When Freqon moved some of its aluminum components to other suppliers, for the new frequency converter model, without communicating it to Nord-Alu, the trust was seriously damaged. But we argue that the problems began earlier. As discussed by Ford et al. (2006) it is important to study relationships from a time perspective. They argue that one can not asses a relationship in one given moment in time, but that one needs to study the relationship by taking all its history of interactions into consideration. In the first years, both companies were highly involved within joint efforts, taking advantage of each other’s resources and capacities. The relationship between the companies and its employees grew stronger which lead to a relaxed communication style and even friendly personal bonding. However, the coordination of the collaboration was also informal and built upon the personal relationships between the actors. Hence, the actor bonds were very strong but the activity links were not strongly developed. In the beginning of the relationship, there was a keen emphasis on the development of resource ties, focus was given to mutual exchange of resources and capabilities. But this focus faded gradually over time. No one seemed to take responsibility for managing the relationship nor showed interest in maintaining the high commitment level that was present initially. Maybe they became too comfortable to scan for new ways of exploiting each other’s resources and capabilities? Here we can observe the importance of being attentive, to perform continuous assessments of where the relationship is going, and to have an understanding of the evolvement of the relationship over time (Ford, Gadde, Håkansson, 2011). We argue that both
References: Ford, D. & Håkansson, H., (2006), The idea of interaction, IMP Journal, 1(1), 4-20 Ford, D., Gadde, L-E. & Håkansson, H. (2011). Managing Business Relationships. Stad: John Wiley & Sons Håkansson, H. & Ford, D. (2002). How should companies interact in business networks? Journal of Business Research, vol 55 no 133 – 13